Charismatic Leadership

Where there is a group of people whether it can be a company, a team, a community or a country. There is a need for a leader to lead the people. Humans are social animals, we interact with one another and we need someone to lead and give us directions. If there are no rules and no control, the world will become a chaotic place to live in and will be the survivor of the fittest. When we talk about leaders, few name come across to minds like John F.

Kennedy is known as the people’s president. Nelson Mandela unites the whole South Africa in the midst of violence and riots, he preaches about love and tolerance for one another. Jose Rizal is known as a national hero in the Philippines. He wrote 2 books that awaken the minds and hearts of all the Filipino people to fight against the Spaniards and a lot more names to mention. Interest in leadership increased during the early part of the twentieth century.

Early leadership theories focused on what qualities distinguished between leaders and followers, while subsequent theories looked at other variables such as situational factors and skill levels. While many different leadership theories have emerged. As leaders, they inspire their people to step forward to achieve success. To improve their living environment and financial stability, a leader must be a role model, he practice what he preach. A person with vision that is able to plan short term, mid term and long-term goals that will benefit the people.

Leads by example, not by giving directions; a servant, not a master; a peacemaker, not a warrior; a coordinator, not an order giver; a facilitator, not an individual decision-maker; and a communications link, not a communications owner. Charismatic Leader is someone who is with self-confident, knowing what needed to be done, one who has vision and able to articulate it. The leader must have strong convictions to convict his follower his vision and lead them to achieve the goals. Willing to take risk for his follower, leader willing to die for his people and the people willing to die for their leader.

Behavior that is out of the ordinary, not following the majority and be the outstanding one. Charismatic leader is able to sensitive to the environment, sensing what happen around him and use the environment to becoming his advantage. For this assignment, we are looking at a man who change a scrappy football club and lead them to be world-class team and giants of Europe. His name is Sir Alex Ferguson. A man who is very passion about football, taking nonsense from anyone, focus on the goal and lead the team to glory after glory.

The Treble Winner

The 1997/1998 season ended trophy less as Arsenal won the Premier League under French manager Arsène Wenger, who started a long-lasting rivalry with Ferguson. For much of the season United had looked to be on the road to success. They led the table for much of the season before a series of disappointing results in the final quarter – combined with Arsenal taking advantage of games in hand – saw the league title head to North London. There was much promise in the European Cup as United recorded an impressive 3–2 win over Juventus in the group stages before being eliminated by AS Monaco in the quarterfinals. Their FA Cup challenge began with an excellent 5–3 away win over holders Chelsea before a shock fifth round replay exit at a Barnsley side who ended the season relegated from the Premier League.

The start of the 1998/1999 seasons, Manchester united were the title contender along side with Chelsea, Liverpool and Leeds United and challenging the titleholder Arsenal which growing stronger and tip to retaining the title. There’s a lot of negative vibes and moral is low among the players as they doubt they will win the Premier league title. Media predict that Sir Alex Ferguson’s side will not win anything again for the season if he doesn’t strengthen up his team.

With the media reporting and writing off Manchester United chances of winning the title, Sir Alex Ferguson busy scouting for new talent to strengthen his team. The summer of 1998 saw striker Dwight Yorke, Dutch defender Jaap Stam and the Swedish winger Jesper Blomqvist for a combined total of nearly £30million.

November 1998 saw Manchester United at the second of the league table. Alex Ferguson told his player not to lost sight their objective despite their good run from the result. He worked hard day in and day out in the office, setting good example to his players, showing them that if they believe in themselves, they would lift up the European Championship and the Premier League.

In the meantime, Manchester United Star Goalkeeper Peter Schemichel decided to call it a day and announce that it would be his last season. The reason why He decided to retire from football, it’s because that he had back injury problem and not been playing well. Alex Ferguson asks him to stay on the team and encourage him to do better. He told Schemichel to give it all in that season and dream about lifting the European Championship and the Premier League title altogether.

The Definition of Leadership

Leadership Needs A Lot Of Fuel (Energy)

A leader must have energy, passion and drive high effort. Base on Krames (2005) P26 Jack Welch says, “Having passion, doesn’t mean loud or flamboyant. It is something that come from the inside” But although the wellspring of passion are internal, the workplace in which one may finds oneself can be either supportive or destructive of passion. The best organization sparks and nurtures a persons’ passion.

Passion is a fuel. You need the engine runs. Such as can put to the wrong purpose lacking good guidance. People can be passionate about the wrong things at time. For instance, crave for attentions, putting their personal goals above of the organization. That is why a leader must have passion and self-confident so that he use conflict to lead his follower. Karmes (2005) quotes “Leader energizer inspire, mobilize people to act and spark others perform. They don’t engage in turf wars, operate in silos or tolerate backbiting behavior.”

The best energizers are an unvarnished, unqualified brand of enthusiasm. Getting the people to respond and make them particularly effective. Leaders should inject them with confidence, give them credit when thing go right. Build up their confident and encourage them. Not looking down and blame others not themselves. A quote from Jack Welch “The ability to energize is the ingredient that count”. Karmes (2005)

Power is the basic energy need to initiate and sustain action or to capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain. The wise use of power is: Transformative leadership. Bennis and Nanus (2003) the leader uses the energy to lead their people when they face new problem and complexities that cannot be solved by unguided evolution. Leader takes up the responsibilities for changing the organization practices to adept the environment change. Build up confident and empower their people to seek new ways of doing things.

Eye Of An Eagle (Vision)

Leader without vision is like a bird flying in the sky blindly. We face uncertain and unsettling future but not one without vision. “ All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty, recesses of their mind. Awake to find that it was vanity; But the dreamer of day are dangerous men, that they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible.” T.E. Lawrence Bennis and Nanus (2003)

Trying to learn how to get things done. The first thing that a leader does is to teach the person to feel that the undertaking is manifestly important and nearly impossible which draw out the kind of drive that make people strong, that put in pursuit intellectually. Vision grabs leader to animates, inspirits, transform purpose into action. Leader also needs a transaction, a transaction between leaders and followers. It is because nether could be exist without the other. The leaders also pay attention as well as catch it.

Man of his words (Honest and integrity)

If there no honesty and integrity between leader and his people. The leader would not able to lead. If they question integrity can be devastating and difficult to accept. Most leaders would like to see themselves as basically trustworthy. But there is some point that a leader should take note.

1. A leader should not promise or commit to something unless the leader knows what he able to honor the commitment. Then, follow through. Do what he says he is going to do. If there is any unforeseen situation that makes the leader unable to fulfill his promises, he may lose the trust of his people.

2. Leader has to be confidences. However, don’t promise confidentiality if he aren’t sure if his men can or should keep the information from others. Such as the legal matter or performance in the company or ethical issues.

3.Leaders are also human. Human makes mistake. Leaders have to admit the mistakes. Don’t look for someone else to blame. Give others an early head’s up. Learn from the mistake, don’t dwell on it, and move on. But once something is done or complete, the leader must share credit and acknowledge the contributions of others. Be an advocate for other’s ideas, especially to those who give in more.

4.Leader should not talk about others behind their backs, unless it’s something positive. If he doses that, others will assume he is doing the same to them. And if it’s something positive, it can assume it will get back to them.

5.Get to know more of his people. Develop relationships it takes time to get to know others and share information about the leader, people will be less likely to question his motives. Socialize with them, so that in future it will be easy to work with. Less chances of getting a conflict.

Code of Honor (Honoring and Fulfilling Commitment)

Speaking is an Action. Language shapes reality and words shapes our thinking and actions. Malandro (2009) when most people faces a challenge or a task, they would say, “I try” or “I’ll try my best”. That would actually diminish the possibility of a success outcome. The meaning of “try” is “to attempt”. But if “I’ll try” change it to “I will”. The person mindset will be change and the behavior adjusts to match the words. A leader desire to lead and will committed to their people. Try is not a commitment or action. It is to runaway or pushes away from responsibility. Looking for a back door to escape from any consequences.

Conclusion

Leadership is not an easy task. Not only just leading his follower to achieve success and taking up the responsibility. He also must have a vision to look forward to the future. Driven to lead and influence others. Being a role model for them, lead by example. Have honesty and integrity, build a trusting relationship with others. A leader should be truthful and non deceitful. Man of his word, keeps a consistency in words and deeds.

What if there is no confidence in the leader? The answer is simple. The leader can’t lead at all. Leader must have self-confidence so that to convince followers of rightness of their goals and decision. Which means that a leader must be energetic, lively people. A leader should be approachable, sociable and assertive.

A leader is leads by example, not by giving directions; a servant, not a master; a peacemaker, not a warrior; a coordinator, not an order giver; a facilitator, not an individual decision-maker; and a communications link, not a communications owner.

Kurt Lewin set out to identify different styles of leadership. While further research has identified more specific types of leadership, this early study was very influential and established three major leadership styles.

* Autocratic leaders, provide clear expectations for what needs to be done, when it should be done, and how it should be done. There is also a clear division between the leader and the followers. Authoritarian leaders make decisions independently with little or no input from the rest of the group.

* Democratic leadership is generally the most effective leadership style. Democratic leaders offer guidance to group members, but they also participate in the group and allow input from other group members.

* Laissez-fair leadership was the least productive of all three groups. The follower in this group also made more demands on the leader, showed little cooperation and were unable to work independently. Leaders offer little or no guidance to group members and leave decision-making up to group members

Source: http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/a/leadstyles.htm base on psychologist Kurt Lewin.

A charismatic leadership is an enthusiastic and personality influences others to behave in certain ways. There are some charismatic leaders such as John F. Kennedy, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and many more. They have self-confidence, in order to influence other by their rightness of their goal. They must be intelligence to create vision for the future and solving problem. Willing to take risk and behavior out of the ordinary. Sensitive with the surrounding or the environment as there is changes most of the time.

Is that means that a charismatic leader has no weakness and no need for improvement. The answer is NO! That is because leaders are still human. Humans are not perfect. A charismatic leader will not be willing to listen to an advice from his follower, because of his self-confidence. Too much of confidence = over confident, big egos, which may cause the leader to overestimate a problem.

Charismatic leaders have a very strong conviction. A person who is out spoken and tactful for what he says. Does that mean that a leader should be out spoken and have strong conviction? Not really, there are some leaders who are man of a few words. Their actions speaks louder than words.